It was a quiet morning and I was enjoying the luxury of being able to head into work a bit later than usual. I was in the kitchen having a cup of coffee and mindlessly scrolling news websites to see if I had missed anything in the last forty seconds or so when Terri darted into the room.
“I need to grab a quick snack, just something to tide me over until lunch,” she said, yanking open the refrigerator door.
I was busy staring at the menu for the cafe around the corner trying to find the brown rice option for my lunch order when Wilson walked into the office. Or at least I thought it was Wilson.
He came in, stepped over the cables of the Tornadex, and sat down across the desk from me. I adjusted my face mask and looked him over, not quite sure if I was seeing what I was seeing.
“Honey, I think there’s something we need to discuss,” Terri said, coming into the living room.
It had been my experience that such a statement usually indicated the end of my relaxed weekend state, so I swung my feet around and sat up on the couch in an effort to at least appear alert.
“I don’t think our robot likes the name you gave it,” she said, sitting down across from me. “I think it finds it demeaning.”
The trouble started as soon as we walked in the door of Big Ronald’s. There was something different, strange even, about the burger joint.
I looked at Wilson. It was his idea to walk over to the fast-food place for lunch. Big Ronald’s had never been a favorite of mine, but I had let Wilson convince me. That usually was the first step in creating a disaster.
“Okay, “ Roz said, from her Zoom box on the big screen at the front of the conference room. “Everyone on the in-office team ready to go?”
I glanced around the big, oval table. There were only three of us. Hardly a team, more like a gathering of a few random people.